


The Blood Rose

by maxride003



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: FAHC, Fake AH Crew, GTA AU, M/M, flower shop au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 01:35:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16985628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maxride003/pseuds/maxride003
Summary: A simple visit to the nice flower shop at the edge of town takes a surprising turn when a gang decides it's a nice target. All Jeremy wanted to do was buy flowers and see the guy he's crushing on.





	The Blood Rose

**Author's Note:**

  * For [maefables](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maefables/gifts).



> This is a secret Santa present for one of my friends, maefables! I hope they, and anyone else reading, enjoy it!

The flower shop at the edge of town was an oddity, but a pleasant one. It didn’t seem to fit with the buildings around it, most of them run down, worn, and decorated with graffiti, while the flower shop sat clean and bright in the middle of it all, as if it had been grabbed up from the center of the city and thrown into its current spot. Jeremy wasn’t sure what kept the Blood Rose from falling victim to the same urban decay as the rest of the neighborhood, but he appreciated its resilience.

Nestled between a smoke shop and a pawn shop, the Blood Rose sat peacefully among its carefully-tended plants. It was a cheerful, soft blue with green awnings over the windows, and a painted rose above the pristine white door. The plants outside sat on neat risers, a cluster of green leaves and bright flowers that made the shop that much more inviting.

“How did you even know this was here?” Michael asked, staring at the shop from across the street.

“I come here all the time,” Jeremy said, cutting across the street, forcing Michael to jog after him and not be left behind. “I found it driving around one day and stopped in to see what was up. Me and the owner ended up hitting it off, so I’ve stopped by a lot just to talk.”

“Oh, Jeremy has a crush,” Michael teased, falling into step beside Jeremy and grinning. “Is she cute?”

“He,” Jeremy said, a gentle emphasis on the word and a small, almost embarrassed smile on his face, “is definitely cute, yes.”

Michael laughed, shaking his head, and looking critically at the plants outside. “Are these things actually real? They look plastic.” He reached out and poked a leaf with his finger.

“What kind of flower shop would have fake plants?” Jeremy asked, gently touching one of the blooming flowers, its petal silky smooth under his finger. They were well cared for, perfectly tended to bloom beautifully, a true labor of love.

“One that leaves its plants unattended outside in a place like this, and sits next to a pawn shop,” Michael said. “Why didn’t we just go to a grocery store or something? They have flowers, right?”

“Sure, but they’re not that good. They have sad flowers.” Jeremy pulled open the door, a small bell overhead chiming, and held it open. “Come on.”

Jeremy and Michael stepped inside the shop, and the smell within was almost overpowering. Flowers and potted houseplants made the shop its own colorful forest, lining the walls, hanging from the ceiling, sitting in large pots on the floor, and filling shelves with small desk plants. Pots and vases were set out along the back wall, barely visible around the walls of greenery, and a bright blue counter sat to the side of the door.

A quick glance around revealed no one else in the little shop, though Jeremy knew the owner would be lost within the leaves somewhere. “Hello?” he called out, as Michael wandered away and leaned down to stare at a collection of venus fly traps in the corner. “Ryan?”

There was movement near the back of the shop, and a man answered, “Oh, uh, yep!” A second later, he stepped into view, tucking an earbud into the collar of his shirt. Ryan’s long hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and a pair of glasses framed his blue eyes. The T-shirt he wore clearly showed off his muscles, and also the faint scars that etched their way across his skin. His hands were covered in soil, and there were a couple faint streaks of it on his nose and forehead. “Hey, Jeremy!”

Jeremy smiled and waved. “Hi! You know, you have a bit of soil…” He gestured toward Ryan’s face and Ryan looked confused as he reached up and rubbed his face with the back of his hand. All it really accomplished was smearing the streaks of dirt and adding a mess to the back of his hand as well as the front.

“Oh. Yeah,” Ryan said, wiping his hands on his pants, which were already stained with stripes of dirt and soil. “Some of the succulents were getting a bit big and needed new pots.” He glanced from Jeremy to Michael, who watched Ryan with a faintly amused smile on his face. “Are you one of Jeremy’s friends?”

Michael’s smile grew and he lifted his hand in greeting. “Yep. I’m Michael,” he said.

“It’s good to finally meet you. Jeremy’s mentioned you quite a bit.” Ryan smiled, reached out to offer his hand to shake Michael’s, and then glanced at it and pulled it back to wipe the lingering soil on his pants again.

“Really?” Michael said, and Jeremy narrowed his eyes at the shit eating grin Michael sent his way. “Jeremy hasn’t talked about you at all.”

“Michael,” Jeremy hissed, smacking his arm. Jeremy could feel his face heating up from sudden embarrassment at Michael’s words.

Ryan laughed, a sound that only heated Jeremy’s face further as his heart skipped a beat. Michael chuckled quietly beside him, and Jeremy was tempted to just hit him again to make him stop. Michael and his teasing was ruining everything. “You’re probably not missing much, really,” he said. “So you guys looking for something, or just here to kill time?”

“We’re looking for some flowers,” Jeremy said quickly, trying to get his words out before Michael could say anything else. He now wasn’t sure why he’d thought bringing Michael here was a good idea. Sure, he’d finally met Ryan, but the gleam in his eye said he’d come away with more than that. “For our bosses. Kind of a mix of congrats and get well, kind of thing…”

Smiling, Ryan gestured toward the back of the shop with one hand. “Well, you know where the flowers and bouquets are. If none of the premade ones work for you, I can put together something else.” He glanced down at himself and smiled apologetically, rubbing the back of his neck and likely just making more of a mess. “At least, once I finish repotting and wash my hands.”

Jeremy nodded quickly, grabbing Michael’s sleeve and tugging him toward the back of the store. “Alright. You finish up, and we’ll be back here,” he said, quickly ducking out of sight of the front, behind the various plants that reached out to brush against him and Michael. He could hear Ryan laughing quietly behind them, and the burning in Jeremy’s cheeks and ears refused to abate.

“Dude, you got it bad,” Michael laughed as soon as they reached the back of the store. Jeremy refused to meet his eyes, instead closely inspecting the nicely put together bouquets in their plastic vases. “Though you’re right, he is pretty cute.”

“He looks pretty good when he’s cleaned himself up, too,” Jeremy agreed, though he had to admit, Ryan’s streaked face had been cute in its own right. It was nice seeing Ryan invested in what he did around here, and see the care he took in it all.

Michael chuckled, reaching out to pat Jeremy on the shoulder. “I can see why you haven’t mentioned him. We’re all assholes,” he said with a grin, before looking critically at the flowers in front of them. “What do you think Geoff and Jack would like?”

Jeremy stared at the flowers, suddenly at a loss now that they were there. “I’m not sure… These all look really nice.” He thumbed the delicate lavender blossoms that sprang from one of the bouquets, looking around at all of them.

“What if we just got them all?” Michael said, the joke clear in his tone as he inspected one of the price stickers. “Buy out all the flowers here and fill up Geoff’s hospital room. And give one to Jack.”

“Just one?” Jeremy laughed. “Here, Geoff, we got you an entire shop’s worth. And Jack, here’s a tulip.”

“I mean one  _ bundle _ ,” Michael corrected, rolling his eyes with a smile. “But yeah, pretty much.”

“We could… Or we just get them each a bouquet of flowers like normal, civilized people.”

“We aren’t normal, civilized people. You know that, right?”

“Let me pretend.” Jeremy grinned at Michael, and he was starting to at least feel more like a normal person, if not civilized. The flush was leaving his face, the butterflies in his stomach were starting to settle again, and the light feeling in his chest was deflating, leaving Jeremy feeling a bit more grounded again.

At least, until Ryan stepped up behind him without a sound and started speaking.

“You find something?” he asked, and Jeremy nearly jumped out of his skin, whirling on his heel and grabbing at whatever was closest for balance and security. His fingers caught one of the cheap plastic vases, and he sent it tumbling to the ground. “Sorry,” Ryan said, though the smirk on his face and laughter in his eyes said he was anything but.

“Don’t  _ do _ that,” Jeremy gasped, putting a hand to his heart and feeling it racing under his fingertips. Michael started laughing as he bent down to snatch up the fallen bouquet.

“Careful, Jeremy, you might get got flower shopping,” Michael said, putting the flowers and vase back on the shelf.

Ryan shrugged a shoulder, his poorly hidden smile still playing at his lips. “You never know, it could happen,” he said. Jeremy just shook his head, narrowing his eyes at Ryan. Looking at him, he noticed that all of the streaks of soil had been cleaned off, and water droplets still clung to the small strands of hair that drifted over Ryan’s forehead. “So...find something good?”

Jeremy dropped his hand from his chest, giving Ryan one more withering look that didn’t quite hide his own growing amusement, before looking around at the flowers again. “Not really. We were thinking about just buying all of them and going from there, but that doesn’t seem all that practical.”

“It’s practical for me. You should do it,” Ryan said with a smile.

“See, he agrees with me,” Michael said, gesturing to Ryan. “And you’d be helping him out in the process.”

“You both are impossible,” Jeremy declared, glancing between the two of them. “If we just wanted to get  _ two _ bouquets for our bosses, what kinds might be good?”

Still smiling faintly, Ryan surveyed his various bundles of flowers. “You said it’s congratulatory and also a get well sentiment, right?” he asked. Jeremy nodded, watching his bright blue eyes flick from flower to flower, though Ryan’s attention seemed a bit distant as he was lost in thought. It made the butterflies come back to life in Jeremy’s stomach.

Ryan reached past him, grabbing one of the bouquets out of its vase. “This is a nice one to use for a get well soon. I sell a lot of these to people headed to visit the hospital.” He pointed to another one near Michael’s head. “That really bright one there might also be good. It’s more celebratory.” Ryan gestured to another section of the wall further down. “Just, if you want to make sure the flowers say something nice and uplifting, maybe don’t grab one of those. A lot of those end up on their way to a cemetery, more often than not. And the ones that look like living Valentine’s day cards might not fit the right mood, either. Or maybe I’m wrong and they do. I don’t know how close you guys are to your bosses.”

Michael snorted out a laugh, looking over the colorful collection of flowers near him that Ryan had pointed out. “I think we’ll leave those ones here for now. Maybe another time,” he said, giving Jeremy a quick glance out of the corner of his eye. Jeremy narrowed his eyes in return.

Before Ryan could answer, the bell above the door rang cheerfully and he glanced around to the front. “I’ll be right back,” he said, pressing the bouquet he held gently into Jeremy’s hands, and disappearing around the shelves.

“You should get one of those red and white ones and give it to Ryan,” Michael said as soon as Ryan was gone.

“I don’t need to get him flowers, he  _ works  _ with flowers. He can get them whenever he wants,” Jeremy protested, and once again the heat was rising in his face.

“Yeah, but they wouldn’t be coming from you,” Michael pointed out.

Jeremy opened his mouth to respond, but stopped at the raised, demanding voices that came from the front of the store. “Empty out the register, now,” demanded a male voice, and Jeremy froze for a second as his brain tried to piece together what was happening.

“Sure, sure,” Ryan said, his voice calm and nonchalant in the face of a robber’s demands. “You could’ve just asked, instead of drawing a gun.”

There was a gunshot and the shattering of a pot, and Jeremy’s heart lurched up into his throat. He scrambled over to the edge of the shelf behind him, looking around, and he could feel Michael up against his back.

Ryan stood behind his bright blue counter, hands raised lazily in surrender, and apparently unconcerned about the pistol being brandished toward his face and the bullet hole in the wall beside him. The person holding the gun had covered themselves well, hiding anything distinguishing behind a hoodie, gloves, a bandana, and sunglasses. It looked extremely ridiculous, but it was at least effective.

“Shut up and open up the register,” the person demanded, a different voice from the first. The other person must’ve been closer to the door, where Jeremy couldn’t see from his current angle.

Behind him, he felt Michael shift, and heard the quiet click of Michael ejecting and reloading his clip, checking his ammo. Jeremy reached to his own gun, hidden in a holster beneath his shirt, just as Ryan glanced over in their direction. And winked.

Jeremy stopped, holding a hand out to Michael. “What’s wrong?” Michael hissed through his teeth, keeping his voice as low as possible.

“Hold on a minute,” Jeremy muttered back, unsure if he’d seen Ryan’s gesture correctly, and whether or not he and Michael should intervene. What did Ryan plan to do about two armed thugs holding him at gunpoint, anyhow? Blind them with soil?

“Yeah, of course. Though that’ll only get you about thirty bucks,” Ryan said, reaching out to the register with one hand. “I don’t ever keep much in the register - most of my money goes straight to the back.”

The guy with the gun glanced over his shoulder for a second, and the first voice spoke up. “Then you’ll come out from behind the counter, nice and slow, and get it for us,” he said.

Michael tapped Jeremy on the shoulder, pulling his attention away and over to Michael. His friend still had his gun at the ready, and Michael gestured to himself and then down to the other side of the aisle. Jeremy hesitated a moment and then nodded, pulling out his own gun. This didn’t seem like it was going to end well, and he’d rather he and Michael be prepared to step in if they were needed.

Turning away from watching Michael creep down the aisle and around to the back of the robbers, Jeremy nearly missed the scene up front. Ryan stepped out from behind the counter, hands still raised, and as soon as he cleared it, he scooped a small cactus from its place at the edge of the counter and chucked it.

The plant missed hitting people, but smashed against the ground, ceramic and soil scattering everywhere. Ryan dove down beneath the counter as the robbers opened fire, but Ryan didn’t stay down for long. Instead, he popped right back up with an SMG held easily in his hands, and returned the favor.

He shot with a care and precision that Jeremy hardly even saw in his own crew, handling the SMG expertly. Clearly, Ryan had fired the gun more than a couple times in the past. While the robbers’ shots were hurried, undisciplined, and frightened, Ryan’s were exact and calm.

One of the robbers fell, his leg a bloodied mess, and Jeremy only saw the other when he went to pull his friend away, both of them scrambling for the door. The bell rang cheerfully as they left, and Jeremy couldn’t help but stare, his mouth hanging open. Ryan hardly seemed to notice, rising from cover and putting the SMG away behind the counter.

“What the hell,” Michael said, as Jeremy finally got his legs to work and hurried back toward the front of the store. Behind the counter and the floor in front of the door were a mess of soil, broken pots, and sad plants that had toppled free. Blood speckled the tile floor, and a number of bullet holes created new decoration on the walls.

“They shouldn’t have come around here,” Ryan said calmly, surveying the mess with a hint of sadness. He stepped between Michael and Jeremy, carefully scooping up the cactus he’d thrown, his fingers trailing along its small bundle of roots that still clung to clumps of dirt. “I’m sorry, little guy. I need to find you a new home now.”

The cactus was set gently on the counter, and Ryan looked around at Michael and Jeremy. “Did you guys find some flowers you wanted?” he asked in the same cheerful, friendly tone Jeremy had grown used to. As if nothing had even happened.

“Uh… Yeah, I… I think so…” Jeremy said, confused by the topic of conversation and still in shock from what had happened. “That was… Holy shit, man.”

Ryan only smiled, going back around the counter and nodding his head toward Jeremy. “You getting that one, then?” he asked, and Jeremy looked down in surprise. He hadn’t realized he still held the bouquet Ryan had passed to him, tucked into the crook of his arm. Some of the flowers were a little more battered now, as he hadn’t been paying much attention to them in the mess, but it still looked fine.

“I, uh...yeah,” Jeremy said, setting the bouquet down on the counter. “And the...other one.” He glanced over at Michael, who still stood with his gun out, staring at Ryan as if Ryan were insane. “You wanna get that one, Michael? The other one Ryan pointed out?”

With a moment’s hesitation, Michael nodded and went back to the back of the shop, tucking his gun away as he went. Jeremy stayed up front, watching as Ryan punched in prices to his cash register, and casually snipped a couple lengths of ribbon to tie neatly around the base of the bouquets’ thin plastic covering. Jeremy had no idea how he was acting like absolutely nothing had happened, like this was just an everyday thing, shooting a couple armed robbers that had stumbled into the shop.

Though this was starting to answer how the Blood Rose maintained itself so well in the area.

Michael came back with the other bouquet, which got a ribbon around it as well, while Jeremy quietly paid for both of them. Ryan passed him the flowers with a smile. “Hope your bosses like them! And maybe I’ll see you around soon?” he said, his words light and hopeful.

Even through the shock and confusion that had come to the front of Jeremy’s mind, he still found himself blushing slightly. “Yeah… Yeah, I’ll be back. Thanks, Ryan,” Jeremy said, gently gathering the flowers in his arms. “Be careful?”

“Always,” Ryan said confidently, reaching around behind him to grab a broom.

Jeremy and Michael stepped out of the shop and stared at each other. “Dude, we gotta tell Geoff about that guy,” Michael said, jabbing his thumb toward the shop.

“No kidding,” Jeremy breathed, making his way across the street and toward their car. “Cute  _ and _ deadly. I like him.”


End file.
